Three And Almost A Day
by Aladailey
Summary: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... a little girl on Alderaan had her third birthday. [Oneshot]


**Author's Note: **Just tell me what you think of it when you're done. It's a plot bunny I've had in my head fora while, and I finally had the courage and time to put it to paper.

* * *

"Mommy! MOMMY! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! Wake up! Wakeupwakeupwakeup!" shouted three-year old Celeste Adnere. Her mother groaned, rubbing her eyes in the bright Alderaan sunlight. Celeste knew that it was much too early on a _normal_ day for her mommy to be woken up. But that was it. Today was _not_ a normal day. It was her THIRD BIRTHDAY. So that meant the mommy and daddy had to get their bom-boms out of bed because it was HER day today! 

"Daddy..." she whined, pouting. He grinned widely but sleepily, with a groan he picked her up and settled her on his stomach.

"Oh, you must've grown," he muttered gruffly. "I could swear you've gotten older overnight."

"I have! I have!" she squealed happily, laughing, her blonde hair falling before her eyes. Her father studied her with a critical eye.

"Of course you haven't! Today isn't any _special _day, you must know that!"

Celeste giggled, leaning foward and shouting, "YES IT IS. It's my birthday!"

"Oh!" he smacked his head. "It is! How old are you? Four?"

"Three! Three! I'm three years old!" she hopped off his stomach, then pounced on her mother, poking her incessantly. Her mother laughed softly, nudging her off and gettting out of bed, stretching. Celeste took this opportunity to start jumping on the bed, looking at her mother with earnest, brown eyes. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy, tell daddy that I'm three years old today! Today's my birthday and I'm three years old!" she shouted at the top of her lungs ('inside voices' didn't count on birthdays).

She felt her father get out of bed slowly, and as her mother opened her mouth to comply, she had to abruptly stop as her daughter flew threw the air and landed against her chest.

"Mommy! Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy - " she started repeating very fast.

"Yes?"

"Mommy? Mommy, am I gonna get my hair like Princess Leia today, mommy? Mommy! Can Princess Leia come to my birthday party? If we become bestest friends, does that make me a princess, too? Mommy? Mommy!"

Her mother laughed, nuzzling her daughter in the neck and giving her a rasberry, making her daughter stop her tirade and squeal.

"Yes, honey - " At first Celeste got VERY excited, because she thought that her mommy was gonna say that Princess Leia was going to come to her birthday party. "Today we're going to that special hair place - " WOW! The special hair place! This made Celeste's eyes light up in delight, forgetting completely about her other questions. Only rich _princesses_ went THERE! "And you'll look _just_ like the princess - I promise."

Celeste, for the bagazillionth time that morning, squealed in delight.

* * *

"Zan - come look at this," Celeste heard her mother say, peering seriously at the holonews. The little girl let out a huff of impatience. She wanted to get the day started! There was gonna be a gigamongous party in the afternoon, with all of her family and friends and they were all gonna sing to her and watch her open presents! She couldn't _wait_ to get her hands on the new Space Faerie Princess Aluva today - _everyone_ (every girl - boys didn't count. They had cooties) was gonna get one, and she was gonna be the first one! 

"What?" he asked, stirring his mug of kaffe (Celeste still couldn't understand how they _drank_ that gross strong hot stuff).

"The Emporer dissolved the Imperial Senate," her mother said quietly, and looked worried. This worried Celeste. Her mother was _never_ worried - but she had no idea what an iperal snate was or whatever other big words the holonews was saying.

"...What?" her father asked in disbelief, leaning closer to the holovision.

At this point, Celeste let out a whine. They could discuss the boring news after her party. Her mother shot her father a look that Celeste knew to be one that meant '_later_'. (It was the look she always got whenever they were shopping and she asked 'where do babies come from?' or 'why are boys and girls different?' or 'can we _please_ sing the Belly-Button Song?')

She was satisfied when her mother shot her a smile. "Baby, drink your blue milk and let me go give you a bath, then we'll get your hair done."

Celeste had never drinken milk faster in her life.

* * *

She danced excitedly out of the hairdresser's, walking proudly with her head high, and her long, white-blonde hair braided and coiled into large buns on either side of her head. She thought she looked _exactly_ like Princess Leia - and the Princess was BEAUTIFUL. 

"Mommy? What time is it?" she asked, trying to sound something that was called 'dignified' (it was a word she heard her mother call the princess. She was determined to be just like Princess Leia).

"11:38," her mother grinned, kneeling down and holding her by both shoulders. "Do you know what is in twenty-two minutes?"

Celeste couldn't count to twenty-two yet, but she had a feeling it had something to do with her birthday party. "My BIRTHDAY PARTY!" she guessed at a shout, losing any traces of 'dignified'.

The woman laughed, (she took that as a yes) and swooped her up, carrying her to the family speeder.

It was hard to sit still. Sometimes she just wanted to roll down the window and shout out the the world that she turned THREE today. But she contented herself with talking to her mother about her birthday and trying to badger her into telling her whether or not she got a Space Faeria Aluva today. Her mother wouldn't tell her - but Celeste didn't mind _too_ much - the surprise when she opened it would make it all the more better.

It was 11:54, her mother told her, when they arrived to the field she was holding her party in. Her daddy promptly picked her up and twirled her. She loved it when her daddy did it! It would make her stomach feel all tingly and funny. He set her down, and she sat on his foot, clinging to his leg as he started walking toward the table that all her presents were on top of. She screamed in glee. There were a ton! At least... (she started to count) _one... two... nine... twenty... thirty-five... thirty-two... eighteen... forty-four... _

Well, there were too many that she couldn't count them.

Soon, the guests started arriving. There were even more than the presents! Which was A LOT. This was going to be the best birthday party EVER.

And it was. All of her friends came along - Aliah, Gehn, Kli, Sede, Lihnea, Wynd, Ali, Saye, Lone, Trite, Heeiea... too many to mention. All the girls in preschool, basically. And they had so much fun! They played tag and hide and seek and in the anti-gravity chamber... some wisps of hair had fallen out of her buns and she's gotten many grass stains and twigs and blades of grass in her hair, but she didn't care. It was her BIRTHDAY, after all, she could do whatever she wanted. And it was SO much fun!

It was perfect. Or, she thought it was. Then came the cake.

Celeste gasped as the towering, huge, pink-frosted cake with simply three lighted candles was carried onto one of the tables. On it, in script, was _To Our Princess Celeste - Have a Great Third Birthday! We All Love You_. She ran over to her mommy and daddy and gave each of them a ginormous hug, clinging tightly and burying her face into their clothes. She didn't know such big cakes _existed_. Let alone on Alderaan. Everything seemed to be smaller on Alderaan (of course, she's never been off planet and that was just something that she heard her father say once).

Celeste bolted away, and moved to pick up a knife, but her father caught her around the waist and twirled her. "Little Miss! You know better!" he looked disapointed, but subsided and started to laugh, kissing her all over her face.

"Ew! Daddy! You're spitting on me!" she complained, laughing, and her daddy stopped and her mother handed them both a slice of cake. She was sat down at the table, and a npkin was tied around her neck to keep her from getting her clothes messier than they were.

The cake was SO YUMMY. It was light and fluffy and sweet ang sugary and... oops. She looked down, looking at her lap, where there was going to be a pink stain because she had just dropped her bite of cake. Discreetly, she rolled it off her lap. No one had to know about it yet, right?

Celeste finished her cake and, after her mommy had to wipe all of the frosting off of her face, she ran straight to her presents. She grabbed the one from her parents...

Tore off the paper...

It was...

It was...

Was it?

IT WAS!

SPACE FAERIE PRINCESS ALUVA!

Celeste jumped up and down, screeching and hugging her brand new Aluva. It was Aluva! The doll she's wanted since forever! She passed Aluva to her friends, but made sure she got it back in the end. Aluva stayed right by her side through the next six presents.

A bright flash illuminated everything, and it all glowed red for a moment before subsiding.

Celeste was transfixed.

_Fireworks_.

THIS. WAS. THE. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER.

"Daddy!" she shouted, almost trippping in her haste to get to her father. She glomped on him. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy, you got me fireworks Daddy! For my birthday! I got fireworks! Daddy! Daddy daddy!" she screamed, and he clung her, laughing. "I love you! I love you, Mommy!"

No one was cooler than dad.

She pushed away from her father, the crushed herself against her mommy's leg while repeating the same thing over and over and over again, and looked up to see her mom's eyes watering.

Mommy was crying! Celeste felt her stomach drop, but mommy simply let out a laugh and hugged her tight, kissing her hair. Comforted, she beamed. She decided then and there that not even Princess Leia was prettier than mom. Mom was beaUtiful!

"Wow - mommy, did you see that one?" she screamed, completely oblivious to the pile of unopened presents. "Look at that one!" She pointed to the sky, where she could see green in a particularly dark spot of the sky. She normally didn't like green, but this one looked like it was going to pretty!

She glanced at her mom, who still hadn't answered. To her confusion, the woman was frowning, not beaming proudly down at her little girl.

"Zan - what is that?"

"I think it's a firework," he answered warily. Then why was Mommy looking so scared?

"No - no, that's - no - get the kids!" she shouted, as the green grew brighter.

Celeste didn't have time to ponder on her mother's strange behavior.

Because, hundreds of miles above the birthday celebration, Princess Leia Organa was watching her planet's destruction.

* * *

_"I felt a great disturbance in the Force - as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced."_

* * *

- chews nails anxiously -


End file.
